Just then, a slow-moving, matronly white Cloud Ship with sails
full of sweet-scented wind came drifting by.

"Come on!" invited the puff clouds. "Let's take
a ride."

So Emma climbed on board, waved good-bye to the Starcatcher,
and off they sailed with a blue sky swelling below them like an
ocean. Emma stood at the bow of the ship and let the sweet-scented
wind blow her hair. The puff clouds bounced and tumbled on and
off and all around the ship, escorting it like a fleet of playful
dolphins.

They sailed over a mat of glossy, mounded clouds with curling
peaks.

"Oh, they look like whipped cream!" exclaimed Emma.

They sailed through a lemon-lime curtain of mist, and slid
down a lavender cloud that unfurled like a scarf. Emma was laughing
and enjoying herself so much that she had completely forgotten
all her bruises, when suddenly a shadow darkened the sky, a bolt
of lightning crashed, and a roll of thunder made the air tremble
like the surface of a drum.

All the little puff clouds squealed and scurried to hide in
the shadow of the big white motherly Cloud Ship.

The dark sky heaved and rolled like an ocean wave tossed in
a tempest. "It's the Cloud Prince," whispered one of
the puff clouds, "and he's not in a very good mood."

Emma felt the ship being blown along by a fast, feverish wind.
An army of stern-looking metal-gray clouds gathered to speed along
behind it. The puff clouds clung to the sides of the ship, their
rounded puffs blown out of shape into thin, cottony trails.

When they came to a stop, the puff clouds fluffed themselves
and fluttered around Emma. They stood at the foot of a soaringly
tall and majestic Cloud Throne. Its pewter turrets and ebony spires
rose into the sky so high they almost reached out of sight, and
the Cloud Prince himself loomed over their heads like the biggest,
blackest storm cloud Emma had ever seen. He fumed and he swelled
and he grew and he changed his shape. He became a giant black vulture
with a drooping, menacing neck that twisted back and forth like
a snake. He spread his wings and held them out, and they reached
across the whole breadth of the sky. Then he swelled and he grew
and he changed his shape again, becoming a green-scaled dragon
with long sharp claws of glinting steel, and a flaming tongue that
lashed all around like a whip.

"What's he going to do to you?" whispered Emma to the
nearest puff cloud.

"I don't know," she whispered back. "His moods are
very changeable."

The Cloud Prince swelled and he grew and he changed into the
shape of an enormous black bear with fur that bristled like a porcupine's
quills and a cavernous mouth full of teeth that snapped like lightning.

"Someone has stolen my Silver Lining," he grumbled in
a low, threatening way.

"I beg your pardon, sir," said one little puff cloud.

"My Silver Lining," he grumbled and rumbled, and his
teeth like lightning crackled and snapped. "Someone has stolen
my Silver Lining, and I want to have it back!"

"But we don't have it," said the little puff clouds all
together.

"Don't waste my time!" the Cloud Prince roared, rising
up on his two back legs. His black fur bristled, and he hurled
a sizzling bolt of lightning at them. "You mischievous puff
clouds are always causing some kind of trouble around here, and
if you don't find my Silver Lining soon, I'm going to roll you
all up into little balls and throw you into the fires of the sun!"

The poor little puff clouds all squealed and whimpered and
tried to hide again in the skirts of the motherly Cloud Ship. But
the angry Cloud Prince swelled and he grew and he changed again
into a fierce black-speckled dog with long lean legs and sharp
red eyes, and he looked ready to come after them for sure. Emma
was very much afraid for them. Besides - she thought she knew something
that could help.

"You?" the Cloud Prince barked. "Where did you come
from? And how could you know anything at all?"

"I came from down on the earth. And I saw it last night," she
said. "It was after a storm that passed over the little brick
house in the country where I live. I looked out the window to show
my baby brother that the storm was gone, and we saw it - a big
dark purple cloud with a gleaming silver lining. It was floating
just over the treetops on the western horizon, and I'll bet it
got caught there, in the branches of a tree.

"Then what are you waiting for," snarled the Cloud Prince. "Go
and get it for me!"

"But . . . but I can't go by myself," said Emma. "I
don't know how, and I can't fly."

The Cloud Prince swelled and he grew and he changed his shape
again, becoming a ferocious, snorting black bull. He struck blood-red
sparks in the air with his hooves.